INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana football’s first challenge under new head coach Curt Cignetti will come in Week 3 of the season against UCLA. It will be the first Big Ten game of Cignetti’s career and the first time the two programs meet.
With the addition of the four West Coast schools — UCLA, USC, Washington and Oregon — to the Big Ten, the 14 teams that have been in the league will experience teams and rosters they haven’t thought about and planned for in the past. Cignetti isn’t worried about going against a group his players haven’t played before.
“On the flip side, they gotta learn about us too,” Cignetti said at Thursday’s Big Ten media day. “So every year you play who you play, and that’s our job to have them ready to have a great plan, get them to execute the plan.”
It will be IU’s first game in the Rose Bowl Stadium since playing in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day in 1968. IU lost that matchup 14-3 to USC in the program’s only Rose Bowl appearance.
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Traveling from Bloomington to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., which is more than a 2,000-mile trip, is something that will be different. Indiana has played just two games west of the Mississippi River in the last four seasons. Indiana hasn’t even played in the pacific time zone since losing the Foster Farms Bowl in Santa Clara, Calif., in December 2016. The journey to that game on Sept. 14 will be a new experience for players.
Cignetti detailed what he expects the travel to Pasadena to be like, saying he wants to leave as late as possible on Friday and get into the Hoosiers’ hotel around 9 p.m. PST the day before the 4:30 p.m. PST game. He doesn’t want there to be time for IU’s players to linger around the area, as he’s afraid they’re excited for the trip “for all the wrong reasons.”
“We’re just going to an old stadium to kick somebody’s (butt),” Cignetti said. “When I say that, that’s not directed toward UCLA. That’s the objective every week. Look, I know that 1967, we were there and we haven’t been there since and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We’re not going out on a cruise or for a tour. We’re going out to play a football game. We got a job to do.”
Players are enthusiastic to travel west and play in such a historic venue. Mike Katic — who’s transitioning from guard to center — will be taking his longest trip in his sixth year with the Hoosiers. Before this, the longest trip Katic took with IU was when the team played in the 2021 Outback Bowl in Tampa, Fla. Katic said he’s never been to California, and he’s “pumped” for the chance to go.
Linebacker Aiden Fisher, who came to IU from James Madison with Cignetti, is taking on his head coach’s approach of going to Pasadena to start 1-0 in conference play.
“At the end of the day, it’s another football game,” Fisher claimed. “We’re going out there to handle business just like every other game, just in a cooler stadium.”
It will be UCLA’s second game of the year, and the first home game for the Bruins under new head coach DeShaun Foster. UCLA was voted 14th in USA Today’s Big Ten preseason poll while IU was 16th. Both teams are expected to be on the lower end of the 18-team conference, so whoever wins could set themselves up with some momentum to begin their head coach’s tenure.
“I’m ecstatic, honestly,” IU running back Justice Ellison said. “That’s gonna be a great experience. We’re gonna have a lot of exciting moments. I know that we’ll be able to win. So I’m looking forward to just being in the Rose Bowl, I haven’t been there ever in my life, so I’m excited for that.”
With Indiana’s first two games being against FIU and Western Illinois, the Hoosiers will likely be 2-0 when they head to Pasadena. The game against UCLA will teach us a lot, like how Indiana matches up with similar Big Ten opponents and the effects of long travel for conference games.
For the Hoosiers to return to a bowl game for the first time in four years, beating UCLA could become a crucial swing game.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: How IU football’s preparing to play UCLA for the first time
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